Microsoft’s Surface Pro 12 is It’s Thinnest Hybrid Tablet Design Yet

A gadget’s price for its size matters now more than ever. It seems more companies—including Microsoft—are starting to identify with the need for more capable laptops at prices people can actually afford. The Windows maker just dropped details on its new 12-inch Surface Pro and thinner 13-inch Surface Laptop that seem to fit the bill, at least on paper. With prices starting at under $1,000 (not including the Surface Pro’s Flex Keyboard), Microsoft’s own brand of computers could hit the sweet spot in the Venn diagram on looks, price, and performance.

The 2025 Surface family includes two very familiar devices. The $900 Surface Laptop with its 13-inch touchscreen (1,920 x 1,280) has a traditional clamshell design, while the $800 Surface Pro 12 is Microsoft’s headline-grabbing Windows tablet that converts into a laptop-like device thanks to a detachable keyboard. The new Surface Pro is $200 cheaper than last year’s $1,000 11th-gen Surface Pro, but—and here comes the eye roll—you still have to buy a keyboard separately. The screen is also smaller at 12 inches (2,196 x 1,464) compared to the 13-inch display on last year’s tablet. The more compact tablet does have a perk: it weighs 1.5 pounds compared to the Pro 11’s two pounds.

Both the new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop 13 run on the Snapdragon X Plus chip, Qualcomm’s eight-core, ARM-based CPU variant introduced in the middle of 2024. Last year’s Surface Pro renditions, alongside the 2024 Surface Laptop, included up to the Snapdragon X Elite chip, which is still Qualcomm’s most powerful ARM-based processor. Otherwise, both the new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop come packed with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage at base.

Microsoft says this CPU is supposed to offer a better starting price point and an upgrade path for those on earlier devices like the 2022 Surface Laptop. According to the company, the Snapdragon X Plus chip in the new Surface Laptop is 30% faster than the Intel Core i5-1235U in the 2022 Surface Laptop. Microsoft further claims this CPU can beat the M3 MacBook Air in some benchmarks, but it stopped short of making the same claims about the $1,000 MacBook Air M4. It’s more evidence these big tech firms are willing to start competing on pricing that more people can entertain.

The new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop aren’t launching with any x86-based Intel chips, though they could arrive later, like with last year’s Surface Pro, which received an Intel Lunar Lake version earlier this year. Either way, Microsoft is sticking with Qualcomm’s ARM chips that offer better battery life on average, though you’ll eventually hit a wall with software compatibility, especially with games or even aging drivers.

The 12-inch Surface Pro will look very familiar if you’ve used any older version of the hybrid tablet-laptop design. It still includes a built-in kickstand that opens up to sit almost flat on a surface. Other than the shrunken size, the big change this go-around is that the Slim Pen no longer slots into the keyboard (again, sold separately). Instead, the Surface Pro tablet includes an indent in the back for you to slot the stylus. It makes sense, especially for creators who want to use the Surface as a Windows tablet more than a pint-sized PC.

However, you may need to find some dry earth to dig a shallow grave to bury your hoard of Surface Connect power cables. The other big change is the loss of the age-old Surface Connect port. Now, the Surface Pro relies only on USB-C with support for 45W fast charging. The Surface Pro’s battery should last around 12 hours based on Microsoft’s tests with active web browsing. The Surface Laptop should get closer to 16 hours before requiring a charge.

Just like last year’s Surface Pro, the new model paints a pretty picture. The brilliantly blue sapphire color of the 2024 Surface Pro is replaced with a violet color that seems spot-on for spring. Both new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop devices also come in platinum or “ocean” colors. The latter is a blue-ish silver that reminds me way too much of Apple’s “Sky Blue” on the MacBook Air M4.

The changes made to the Surface lineup are minimal, but there are some modifications that make sense. If you loathe the idea of losing Surface Connect, Microsoft confirmed it will continue selling last year’s Surface models, at least for the near future. The next big question is whether these prices will hold with the overriding threat of Trump tariffs. Microsoft reps told us that “tariffs are a moving target for us” and declined to say more about whether we could see Surface price hikes in the near future.